Background: Basal and squamous cell carcinomas represent the most common cancers in North America. Their management is an important issue.
Objectives: The evaluation of cure rates of minimally invasive cutaneous carcinomas with curettage-cryosurgery compared to curettage-electrodesiccation, as well as the assessment of the aesthetic appearance of scars.
Methods: This prospective trial randomized 117 patients 1:1 to treatments of curettage-cryosurgery or curettage-electrodesiccation. They were then followed at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months.
Results: At 12-month follow-up, only one (1/49) patient had a recurrence of cutaneous carcinoma in the curettage-cryosurgery group and none (0/43) in the curettage-electrodesiccation group. Farrington-Manning analysis with a 5% margin of error showed the non-inferiority of the first method (P = .04). For the aesthetic appearance of scars after 12 months, better results with curettage-cryosurgery procedure has been observed, but this was not statistically significant (P = .80 and P = .27 for evaluations of patients and clinicians respectively).
Limitations: This study was mainly limited by its small sample size.
Conclusion: We have demonstrated that curettage-cryosurgery compared to curettage-electrodesiccation for the treatment of minimally invasive carcinomas is noninferior (comparable) with regards to cure rates at 12-month follow-up. No significant difference has been demonstrated for the appearance of scars.
Keywords: cancer; dermatology; surgery.